Title: CSI100Fics Prompt Challenge No. 42 - Triangle
Author: Dee
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1275
Pairing: Gil/Nick
Characters: Catherine Willows, Sofia Curtis and Warrick Brown
Warnings: V.fluffy and AU.
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: In my dreams they are like, totally mine!
Beta: podga, so the remaining mistakes are all mine!

Mandy’s wedding had been a bit of a surprise; only Wendy had known that she was dating the doctor and that it was serious.

 

The doctor also worked nights - in the ER at Desert Palm – so the relationship was conducted in bright sunshine, just like the wedding.

 

The whole gang were in attendance but what had most people chatting and gossiping wasn’t the bride, who looked absolutely lovely as only brides do; no, it was Gil Grissom and his lover, Nick Stokes.

 

Now most people had seen both men in suits, most usually for court appearances and the like, but for the wedding they had excelled themselves, considering that neither man was known as a savvy dresser.

 

Gil was wearing a cream suit, a slightly lighter cream shirt, tan coloured belt and shoes, and a delicately striped tie, that repeated the cream and tan colours of his clothes, but also a blue the colour of the summer sky…and a perfect foil to accentuate his dark blue eyes.

 

Nick was in a light grey suit and white shirt, with black accessories and a tie covered with little geometric patterns of pink and mauve and blue.

 

All the women had given them appraising looks and they had certainly come out at the top of the ‘best dressed’ category.  A few men were also envious of the manner of their dress, which looked effortlessly suave, not that any of the men would speak about this; except Greg who’d whistled his appreciation when he’d seen them both, eliciting a frown from Gil and a laugh from Nick.

 

They had been invited as a couple and had been together at the service and when the toasts were being given but now they were separately speaking to people they knew, except…

 

“Who’s that woman with Gil?”  Catherine asked Warrick; the woman in question with Gil wasn’t giving him much room to manoeuvre.  She was pushing her body towards him and smiling into his face and speaking to him, at him, and although Gil was talking back to her it was clear that she was monopolising the conversation.  He did look vaguely uncomfortable, though that could be the clothes, thought Catherine, for as smart as he looked he wasn’t used to dressing up that often.

 

“No idea, no one I know.”

 

“She’s the groom’s oldest sister, unhappily divorced and on the look out for number ‘four’ I believe.”  Sofia intervened.

 

“Wow, you got the inside info quick.”

 

“Overheard those two elderly ladies over there.”  She nodded towards two sour-faced old women sitting alone.  “The family black sheep, allegedly.”  She laughed.

 

“I love the scandals and gossip at weddings…and funerals for that matter; families!  All families seem to have so many skeletons in their cupboards; it makes me feel as if I’m not actually half as dysfunctional as I feel.”

 

“Most families just get by, don’t they?”

 

“You’re right.”

 

“But…”  Catherine and Warrick looked at Sofia as she spoke the word, knowing full well it was a prelude to gossip of some kind.  “...it’s not so much Gil and the predator, it’s Nick; he’s been glancing over at them every so often, since they got together…well, since she pinned Gil down.  At first he just smiled and glanced over every few minutes and then he lost the smile and just glanced and now, look, he’s scowling and staring.”

 

The other two followed Sofia’s eyes to Nick, who was standing across the lawn next to, but not with, Archie, Henry and Bobby.  He did indeed look, ‘unhappy’, thought Sofia, ‘pissed’, thought Warrick.  ‘Furious’ was Catherine’s assessment.

 

Catherine thought about the men and how they seemed to her; just regular guys; no one would ever think that they were actually together, a couple, and had been for some years now.  She had never seen them exchange any intimacies, no kisses, no touches, sometimes they would glance at each other and you’d know, but those glances were so fleeting, that one could be mistaken that they’d even taken place.

 

But not now.

 

Nick was glaring across at the couple, his lover with the predatory woman; she had Gil pinned down, obviously he was being polite, but she was giving Gil no chance to get away. 

 

“I’ll go and rescue Nick, take his mind off it…”  Warrick felt for his buddy.

 

“No.”

 

“No.”

 

Catherine and Sofia were obviously of the same mind.  This was an act from a play and it could only end in tragedy.  This final scene would end with one of the protagonists lying dead, metaphorically speaking, but they didn’t want to miss it and they smiled knowing little smiles at each other.

 

“What are you two up too?”

 

“Nothing, Warrick, we just want to see what’s going to happen, Nick’s going to blow up any minute, he’s gone red in the face…”

 

“…and Gil’s looking less and less happy as the minutes pass.  I bet he’s tried to extricate himself, but he just doesn’t do extricate very well.”

 

“Very well?  Not at all, I think.  Look how long it took Sara to get the message; all because he couldn’t tell her the truth, didn’t want to hurt her feelings.  God knows how he managed to get, and keep, Nick.”

 

“I think that’s because Nick works at it; he’s willing to keep the peace and smooth the wrinkles out of Gris.  What?”

 

Warrick’s little insight into the relationship of Nick and Gil had astounded the two women and both were looking at him as if he’d grown two heads.

 

“I hang with them quite a bit, you know, play games with Nick, watch games with them both, I've seen them together, and that’s my opinion, assessment, okay?”

 

“Do they…you know…kiss, hold hands, when you’re there…”

 

“….NO!”

 

“Okay, just asking; don’t throw a fit.”

 

“Yeah…well…”

 

“Oh God!  Look!  Nick’s had enough; he’s going over; this’ll be interesting.” Sofia was almost gleeful at the prospect of a showdown, and Catherine joined her in staring as the very handsome, well dressed man ambled across the lawn.

 

Warrick huffed and shook his head at their enthusiasm, but his eyes were also glued to the scene unfolding before him, as a now relaxed Nick slowly and calmly made his way towards his lover and the predator.

 

The three saw him arrive at Gil's side, and Gil almost jump, as he realised Nick had come up, unseen, behind him.  But whatever the trio were expecting, it wasn’t what happened next.

 

Gil smiled as big a smile as they’d ever seen, threw his arm around Nick’s waist and pulled Nick to his side and then planted a kiss on his lips; more than chaste and less than passionate was the assessment of both women watching the scene unfold.

 

The predator, who’d tried to muscle in on Nick’s property, was clearly astounded.  Her mouth hung open and she stepped back and very nearly stumbled.

 

Nick, in the meantime, had regained his composure (and clearly the upper hand) and gave the predator one of his thousand megawatt smiles and held his hand out as Gil introduced them.  She hesitated a little but finally took the proffered hand, but after a perfunctory shake she backed off and made a speedy escape.

 

Gil kept his arm around Nick as she disappeared and they then turned towards one another and kissed, once more, very gently.  They had eyes for no one else; they could have been the only people in Las Vegas at that moment. 

 

“Well, I hope I never get involved in a love triangle with either of them, because I know who’d come out the loser.”

 

“Yeah…don’t they look cute?”

 

“Cute?  They’re dudes!”

 

The End